Both Harris and Trump make final push for NC voters | Live Blog

Another court hearing on North Carolina's Voter ID law is happening today.

The case, which started nearly six years ago challenged two constitutional amendments. One of those amendments include lowering the state income tax cap and the other challenges a state voter photo ID requirement.

Advocates argue the state's photo ID law discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters and dilutes their voting power.

Lawyers for the group say the law violates section two of the Voting Rights Act as well as the 14th and 15th amendments.

Republican state lawmakers say the ID requirement, which took effect last year, builds voter confidence in elections.

Today's hearing laid out the next steps in the case after closing arguments happened in March.

First Lady Jill Biden announced Wednesday she be will making two stops in North Carolina to campaign for Harris-Walz.

During her visit, Biden plans to highlight Vice President Harris and Governor Walz's vision for a New Way Forward and to encourage North Carolinians to vote early in-person.

She will stop in both Fayetteville and Cary on Friday, Oct. 25.

Event times have not been released.

The U.S. Postal Service has reopened all of its mail processing centers in areas of Florida and North Carolina hit by recent hurricanes, a top official said Wednesday in a briefing meant to reassure voters and election officials that the agency is ready to handle mail ballots.

The Postal Service held the virtual meeting less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 election and six weeks after state and local election officials warned that problems with mail service threatened to disenfranchise voters. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy later responded that the Postal Service makes "heroic efforts" to get even ballots mailed late to election offices on time.

Even after Hurricane Helene in late September and Hurricane Milton this month, 99.9% of the nation's election-related mail was delivered within seven days, the Postal Service reported Wednesday. It said 99.7% of the election-related mail was delivered within three days for the last presidential election in 2020.

"We have the capacity to handle a high volume of election mail in the final weeks of the election," said Steven Monteith, a Postal Service executive vice president and its chief marketing officer.

Monteith said all the processing centers in North Carolina were back in operation as of Tuesday, as were all of Florida's centers. He said mail can be delivered to all but 4,600 addresses in North Carolina and about 600 in Florida.

It's not clear how many voters in the hardest-hit areas will return their ballots by mail. Early in-person voting has gotten off to a strong start in North Carolina, where election officials have taken a number of steps to make voting as accessible as possible for voters affected by the storms. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has extended early voting to Election Day for certain counties and modified deadlines for election supervisors to send out mail ballots.

As of Tuesday, the Postal Service had moved retail sites in eight communities and brought mobile units into another 13 in western North Carolina around Asheville and Charlotte. It moved 10 retail sites in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area and another three in and around Fort Myers.

Monteith said a "full recovery" of mail service from the hurricanes "may stretch forward for some time," but that people still can pick up mail at post offices or mobile units. He said mail that had been undelivered because of the hurricanes is being moved to them.

"The nation's postal network is operating effectively without any major reported disruptions," Monteith said.

During a separate Monday briefing, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said voters can take some comfort in the fact that election officials are not asking the Postal Service "to be on high, high alert forever and ever."

"We're asking them for the next 15 days to be on the top of their game," said Simon, the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

In September, NASS and the National Association of State Election Directors sent DeJoy a letter saying that problems with mail delivery hadn't been adequately addressed.

But earlier this month, one vocal critic, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican, said a phone call with DeJoy reassured him that the Postal Service would address problems in his state.

Schwab's office reported that at least 697 ballots from the state's August primary election arrived at election offices too late to be counted, and at least another 78 did not have the required postmark. Of those 775 ballots, 79% were from three populous counties, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in the Kansas City area and Douglas County in northeastern Kansas, home to the main University of Kansas campus.

Utah's Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in her state, said the state has experienced some problems with mail ballots being routed through Las Vegas and not being postmarked on time. But she said postal workers "understand the urgency and the importance" of on-time delivery.

"Things will go wrong," she said. "But every little thing just feeds that conspiracy monster, right? And it's so not helpful."

Postal Service officials are advising voters to mail their ballots at least seven days in advance.

"What we've been trying to do, in addition to working with the Postal Service, is to help voters understand that they're responsible ultimately for their own ballots," Henderson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

There are some things you can do when going to cast your ballot -- and some you can't. Some are even against the law.

Know before you go. The State Board of Elections asked county boards of elections across the state for common voter questions, concerns, and misconceptions.

Here are 12 key things to know as you go to the polls.

Lines at voting sites. This is a presidential election, and millions of North Carolinians will cast ballots in 2024. There will be lines at certain times at early voting sites and Election Day polling places. Be prepared. Wear comfortable shoes, bring a chair if you have difficulty standing for long periods, pack water or snacks, and depending on the weather forecast, consider bringing an umbrella or handheld fan. You can also check your county board of elections' website to see if they have a wait time tracker for voting sites. Lines are typically longest at the beginning and end of the early voting period.

Photo ID. Many different types of photo IDs are accepted, including driver's licenses and passports. Find a complete list at BringItNC.gov. If you are older than 65 and your driver's license did not expire on your 65th birthday, you can use that to vote. You do not have to bring your voter registration card, but you should bring an acceptable form of ID. If you do not have one, you can get one for free from your county board of elections office, or fill out an exception form at your voting site explaining why you were unable to show ID.

Secure, auxiliary bin. Every ballot scanner, or tabulator, at voting sites has a secure, auxiliary bin attached to it. If there is a problem with a tabulator - power outage, ballot jam, etc. - voters will temporarily place their ballots in the bin instead of inserting them in the tabulator. When the issue with the tabulator is resolved, a bipartisan team of election officials will insert the ballots from the bin into the tabulator. Additionally, the county board of elections will ensure the total number of ballots cast matches the number of voters who checked in at the site. This ensures every ballot is accounted for and counted.

With hundreds of tabulators used across the state during early voting and thousands on Election Day, occasionally a tabulator can experience a problem. This is why the auxiliary bin exists, and it is the industry standard used to address these situations in jurisdictions across the country.

Can poll workers write on your ballot? In North Carolina, yes, poll workers can, and often do write on ballots. This is done for various reasons as required by law. Social media posts suggesting that writing on your ballot will invalidate it have been circulating for years, and they are false. For more information, see Fact: In NC, if an Election Worker Writes on Your Ballot, It Does Not Invalidate It.

Your ballot will count, even if you leave some contests blank. You do not have to make a selection in every contest on your ballot. If you skip contests, your votes will be counted in all other contests on your ballot. Leaving a contest blank will not invalidate your ballot.

Your ballot will count, regardless of voting method. The ballot of every eligible North Carolinian will be counted regardless of which voting method they choose - absentee, in-person early, or in-person on Election Day.

Can I take a selfie with my ballot? No. In North Carolina, it is illegal to take a selfie with your ballot or photograph your ballot. North Carolina law prohibits photographing or videotaping voted ballots. Voters may use their electronic devices in the voting booth to access candidate information, provided they don't use the devices to communicate with anyone or take photographs of their ballot or other voters. The NCSBOE encourages selfies with "I Voted" stickers at the voter selfie stations outside voting locations instead.

Spouses can vote in the same voting booth if both request to do so. This is not common, but the state law does allow spouses to choose to vote together in the same voting booth. Poll workers should not encourage this practice; but if both spouses agree to do so, it is permissible.

Inactive voters are still registered voters. If a person in "inactive" registration status shows up to vote, they will confirm their address with a poll worker, or update their address within that county, if necessary. They will also show photo ID as required by law.

Can I just vote through the drive-through?. Yes, kind of. Curbside voting is an option from your car for voters who are unable to enter the voting place without physical assistance, usually because of age or disability. It is not for voters who do not want to wait in line. Curbside voters must sign a sworn statement affirming that because of age or disability, they are unable to enter the voting place without assistance.

Poll worker duties. Poll workers are there to ensure voters can cast ballots securely and efficiently. They cannot discuss candidates or ballot items with voters.

Candidate information. Volunteers and supporters of particular candidates are allowed to pass out fliers and other information about candidates, provided they are outside the buffer zone, which should be marked at every voting site. If campaigners become too aggressive or are inside the buffer zone, voters should report that to an election official immediately.